ALST 340 - Art and Culture in Contemporary Jamaica (Study Group)

Introduces students to ways of reading and interpreting Jamaican culture using a broad interdisciplinary approach. In keeping with a cultural studies framework, students examine literature, theatre, music, dance, and film as expressions of Jamaican subjectivities and identities. The contexts and conversations out of which these artistic representations have emerged are considered through historical, sociological, and political texts that help to map the larger cultural matrix. Textual explorations are accompanied by field trips and guest lectures (from experts in the various disciplines) with the understanding that Jamaican culture is not fixed but evolving and dynamic, multifarious, and heterogeneous.